Princess Mako of Japan engaged to a commoner

When Princess Mako marries Kei Komuro, she is expected to keep her job as a researcher at a museum at the University of Tokyo, which she landed after completing a master's degree in art museum and gallery studies.

Nobuyasu Sato, who was Komuro's homeroom teacher when he was a fifth and sixth grader at an elementary school affiliated with Kunitachi College of Music, said Komuro was a "tender-hearted child" and that his caring attitude to the princess at the couple's press conference showed that his nature has not changed. As she is a female, she will lose royal status as the law does not apply to royal males.

The news conference followed the Imperial Household Agency's official announcement of their engagement the same day. Komuro replied Princess Mako "has been quietly watching over me like the moon".

Japan's Princess Mako has formally announced her engagement to a commoner after receiving the emperor's approval.

According to Japanese royal laws, women are not allowed succeed to Japan's throne which means that Princess Mako will lose her royal status once she weds the 25-year-old Komuro, a legal assistant who loves playing the jazz piano. During the program, Komuro went to the University of California in Los Angeles, while Princess Mako studied at the University of Edinburgh.

Over time, she said she learned he is 'a honest, strong-minded, hard worker, and he has a big heart, ' Mako said.

"I would like to have a family that is always calm and peaceful". She now works as a researcher at a museum at the University of Tokyo.

The announcement was originally expected in July, but was postponed after a rain disaster hit western Japan.

In 2016, 83-year-old Emperor Akihito announced publicly that poor health following heart surgery and prostate cancer had made him unfit to properly fulfill his duties as emperor of the country.

The couple had a long-distance relationship while studying overseas - Mako in Britain and Komuro in the U.S. - for one year.

On Sunday evening, Princess Mako and Komuro were slated to have a dinner with Prince Akishino, Princess Kiko and Komuro's mother at the residence of the young princess' parents in the Akasaka estate.

Mako, 25, is the eldest daughter of Prince Akishino, Akihito's second son.